Red-throated Loon
Red-throated Loon: Small loon with scaled gray back and white underparts. Head and sides of neck are gray, throat is dark red, nape is black-and-white striped. Eyes are red. Feeds on fish, dives to 90 feet for them. Direct flight, rapid wing beats. Only loon to leap into flight from water or land.
● Song:
"kwuk-kwuk-kwuk"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Red-throated Loon: Eats mostly fish; forages by diving from the surface and swimming underwater to pursue prey. Sometimes feeds in small flocks during winter.
● Breeding & nesting:
Red-throated Loon: One to three olive green to brown eggs with black brown spots are laid in a ground nest made of grass, twigs, and mud, lined with finer materials, and built at the water's edge. Incubation ranges from 24 to 29 days and is carried out by both parents. Young start to fly at 49 to 60 days.
● Similar species:
Red-throated Loon: Arctic and Pacific loons lack red throat patch in breeding plumage and show more contrast between dark nape and white throat in winter plumage.